Fisher Unitech has recently partnered with Desktop Metal, a creator of accessible metal 3D printing metal solutions. The partnership will make metal 3D printing metal solutions more readily available, as Fisher Unitech will be selling and servicing Desktop Metal 3D printing systems in a wide portion of the United States, including the Midwest, New England, and Mid-Atlantic regions. The availability and affordability of 3D printing technologies for metals gives new options to engineers and designers looking to prototype or produce products on a large scale.

Metal 3D Printing Process

Desktop Metal’s innovative approach to metal 3D printing has generated plenty of buzz in the 3D printing community. Traditional 3D printing processes like injection molding tend to have a small selection of materials, and can be noisy and labor-intensive to operate. They are also too slow and expensive for prototyping or mass production, which limits their usefulness to engineers and designers.

Desktop Metal has been working since 2015 to address these problems, with a focus on making metal 3D printing more accessible and useful to engineers in manufacturing. The company has adapted old printing techniques and turned them into innovative new processes that allows metal 3D printing to be done quickly and safely while still reducing costs. For example, Desktop Metal's Production System (late 2018/2019 release) uses Single Pass Jetting, a process created by the inventors of binder jetting. This allows engineers to quickly produce parts from a wide range of high-quality, low-cost alloys, including tool steel, stainless steel, and copper.

These new processes and systems open up a whole new world of opportunities for the 3D printing industry. Metal 3D printers can be used in a wide range of industries such as aerospace, automotive, and defense to create everything from small parts to medical devices. But as TechCrunch points out, this technology and hardware was typically limited to large corporations with significant capital. Desktop Metal's solutions makes metal 3D printing available to a wider range of companies who might otherwise not been able to afford it.

Desktop Metal Offerings

In line with making metal 3D printing more readily available, Desktop Metal has two printing solutions available for rapid prototyping offices and large scale production:

Studio System

The Studio System is the world’s first office-friendly system, allowing engineers and designers to quickly make metal parts without the intricate setup required by other systems. The Studio System is up to 10x cheaper than comparable laser-based systems, but does not use powders or lasers, and comes equipped with a fully-automated sintering furnace. The Studio System’s furnace has a peak temperature of 1400o C, which allows it to sinter a wide variety of metals.

The Studio System is ideal for prototyping and low volume metal 3D printing needs. Desktop Metal sees it being particularly useful in the automotive, manufacturing, and consumer products industries.

The Production System is the first metal 3D printing system for mass production. At speeds up to 100x faster than laser-based systems with a price that’s 20x cheaper, the Production System has a per-part cost that can compete with traditional manufacturing. Because it does not need tooling, the Production System can outperform processes like casting while adding features like mass customization and just in-time production.

The Production System takes a new approach to metal 3D printing with Single Pass Jetting, a bi-directional process that spreads powder and print in a single pass, jetting millions of droplets per second. This allows metals to be built in a matter of minutes with high precision.

According to Desktop Metal, the Production System is well-suited for manufacturing complex, high-performance metal parts at high volumes.

The Future of Metal 3D Printers

With the addition of Desktop Metal 3D printing solutions, Fisher Unitech is giving its customers an opportunity to stay on the cutting edge of 3D printing at an affordable price. The future of metal 3D printing is here, and it can be done quickly, safely, and with more materials than ever before. If you’re interested in 3D printing in plastics and metals with an improved time to market, you can pre-order a system or contact us for more information on 3D printing services.

Lisa Hannon is a marketing manager at Fisher Unitech. She develops content for 3D printing topics that have an impact across all industries that are researching ways to maximize getting products to market faster as well as cost savings with 3D printing solutions. Lisa has worked as a marketing management professional since 1998, most recently with Stratasys. You can follow her on Twitter: @lmci37